The iPad

[Dark Jaguar]

Certainly not as Star Trek depicts such technologies, no. But, then again, if FTL travel is ever devised, assuming some subversion of Einsteinian principles, do you really think it's going to involve dilithium crystals?

Given my belief that a person will, eventually, no longer need to be tied to a specific physical body, teleportation would be reduced to sending a packet of information comprising the vital data which make up a person's unique intelligence/persona from Pt. A to Pt. B, whereupon it can, if needed, be installed into a physical shell constructed at the remote location. And, with nanoassemblers capable of those kinds of feats, the concept of replication is already rendered obsolete.

Hey cool I've thought of exactly that! I suppose if all you care about is getting your mind somewhere else, that could be considered teleportation. I was thinking actually bringing physical matter from one place to another though.

As for nanoassembly, again you'll need a specific set of nanoassemblers, or at least a very diverse set with specific instrutions, for every single type of thing you might want to assemble. As for how feasible it is, well we are LIVING proofs of concept. Cells basically ARE nanoassemblers, however keep in mind that even after millions of years of selection, it still takes months to years for large things to develop, and very specific compounds. Remember that making molecules is a lot easier than making atoms, and making atoms unleashes a lot of energy, which presents certain problems. That's one of the limitations of us organics, we don't have fusion and fission reactors in our bodies, so if we want something basic like iron or calcium, we've got to scrounge it up ourselves. Earth's got the same amount of those base elements as when it first congealed. (Cue "made of star stuff" speech.) Fortunatly after millions of years, all the iron and calcium and so on on the surface seems to be in the great food chain, ready for us to eat it.

Ya know, one thing about Star Trek is the complete lack of genetic alteration. Apparently this is because of Star Trek's eugenics wars with Kahn and so on, but I'd think in the real world we'd be able to do it more responsibly. There's this Outer Limits episode where people genetically altered themselves to the point where they couldn't breed, leading to extinction, but that's kinda short sighted isn't it? Let's say such a scenario as "inability to breed" actually happened. Certainly a society capable of genetically altering themselves to that degree could simply genetically alter a large group to BE capable of breeding.

The big desire to explore space and colonize other worlds has declined a lot. I can understand the want to get our own planet in order before bothering other worlds, but eventually we're going to want to expand, at least I'd think so.